Senior Buildings Operations Manager - Real Estate (m/f/d)

Job Description

Aberdeen manages over €63bn of real assets globally, with real estate representing the largest component at €45bn of assets under management. The real estate platform spans direct, indirect and listed strategies across multiple jurisdictions and sectors, requiring strong technical governance, operational resilience and regulatory compliance to support long‑term value creation.

The Senior Building Operations Manager is a specialist, independent technical oversight role within the real estate asset management platform.

The role is responsible for providing expert challenge and assurance across asset condition, technical compliance, facilities management performance and operational risk. It ensures that assets are safe, compliant, well maintained and fit for purpose, allowing Asset Managers to focus on value creation, strategy and transactions rather than day‑to‑day operational risk.

Working alongside Asset Management, Property Management, Development teams and external FM providers, the role provides technical governance, early risk identification and consistent standards across the portfolio.

• Verification that the PM provides complete and reliable maintenance and inspection plans
• Monitoring timely execution of preventive maintenance
• Spot checks of maintenance logs, evidence, and technical reports

• Review of annual capex budgets and plausibility checks of technical cost items     
• Actual‑vs‑budget comparisons for maintenance costs
• Analysis of budget overruns, including root‑cause evaluation
• Ensuring correct capex classification

• Monitoring the overall performance of FM providers, based on agreed service levels and contractual obligations
• Review of FM reports, service tickets, and recurring issues to identify patterns and risk areas
• Verification that preventive and corrective FM activities are properly organized, documented, and escalated where needed
• Ensuring clear coordination between FM providers and Property Managers, including responsiveness and service quality

• Monitoring statutory inspection requirements (e.g., elevators, fire safety, electrical checks)
• Ensuring timely completion by the Property Managers
• Review of documentation, deficiency reports, and acceptance protocols

• Review of technical monthly and quarterly reports
• Verification of defined technical KPIs (e.g., maintenance completion rate, time to remedy defects)
• Feedback to PMs including deviation lists• Project Oversight (Monitoring, not Project Management)
• Plausibility checks of major technical measure
• Review of cost estimates, technical specifications, and tender documents
• Verification of project completion documentation and technical records

• Above-average academic degree with a focus on building operations (e.g., Facility Management, Real Estate Management, or Building Services Engineering)
• At least 8 years of relevant professional experience in a facility or property management environment
• Strong analytical capabilities combined with sound commercial and financial acumen
• In-depth knowledge of statutory inspection requirements, safety standards, and regulatory compliance
• Experience in performance management, including KPI tracking, reporting, and quality assurance
• Proven ability to manage and oversee external service providers and ensure contractual performance
• Good understanding of technical project environments, particularly with regard to cost evaluation, specifications, and documentation
• Excellent communication skills, with a confident and assertive approach to stakeholder management
• Fluency in both German and English, written and spoken

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. If you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire. One of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

Enabling our clients to be better investors drives everything we do. Our business is structured around three distinct areas – our vectors of growth – focused on our clients’ changing needs. You can find out more about what we do here.

Whatever way you like to work, if you have the talent and commitment to join our team, we’d like to hear from you.

At Aberdeen we’ve adopted a ‘blended working’ approach. This approach combines the benefits of face-to-face collaboration, coaching and connecting in our offices with the flexibility of working from home. It enables colleagues to find a balance that works for their roles, their teams, our clients and our business.

An inclusive culture, where diverse perspectives drive our actions, is at the core of who we are and what we do. If you need assistance with your application, or a reasonable adjustment to your interview arrangements – for example, because you are neurodivergent, or have a physical, sensory, cognitive, mental, visible or invisible disability – please let us know and we’ll be happy to help.